That was a great article on backpacking and weight loss! Granted it is good to decrease body weight if one is overweight, but I would be interested in a discussion of too much weight loss with long distance backpacking. How does weight loss effect performance? At some point, I would think that energy reserves would be less and that would affect performance. How can one calculate an ideal body weight to maintain? And how can one increase it if it gets too low? I lost 30 lbs. last year over a couple of months of hiking (from 195 to 165 lbs.) and then my weight loss stopped. But no matter how much I gorged in towns, I could not get my weight up from that. I felt fine for several more months, but then became very tired and had to stop hiking. I think I lost too much weight, but am not certain. Is that a common experience? I have only heard of this problem from one other hiker.

It's difficult to comment on your specific situation without knowing more, but you might benefit from reading Ray Jardine's book "Beyond Backpacking", if you haven't already done so. He spends a good bit of time discussing the nutritional needs of long distance hikers (not just the caloric requirements) and explains that deficiencies are a common reason that backpackers terminate long distance hikes early.

My article was meant to focus mainly on the mechanics of weight loss, but I'm planning a follow-up article (as mentioned in the current one) that gets more into the nutritional side of trail food and will also include a calculator that you might find useful for planning your menu.

hitrailer wrote:That was a great article on backpacking and weight loss! Granted it is good to decrease body weight if one is overweight, but I would be interested in a discussion of too much weight loss with long distance backpacking. How does weight loss effect performance? At some point, I would think that energy reserves would be less and that would affect performance. How can one calculate an ideal body weight to maintain? And how can one increase it if it gets too low? I lost 30 lbs. last year over a couple of months of hiking (from 195 to 165 lbs.) and then my weight loss stopped. But no matter how much I gorged in towns, I could not get my weight up from that. I felt fine for several more months, but then became very tired and had to stop hiking. I think I lost too much weight, but am not certain. Is that a common experience? I have only heard of this problem from one other hiker.

Yeah again I think the key is balancing the amount of hiking with the amount of caloric intake. If you are hiking very long distances, then bring proper food. Nuts are very high in calories and don't have much weight for how much they weigh. they are perfect to bring along.